THis put me over my daily limit of $15 so I didn't get any more impressions.
My question is should I take out these keywords or lower my CPC for them so they don't eat up after a couple clicks? I'm currently 1.0-1.9 on all 18 keywords.
Good luck.
[edited by: WebEqualizer at 1:26 am (utc) on April 22, 2005]
THe reason I uped the price was becuase I wasn't getting any clicks and I only had 90 impressions the first day.
That is because your ads are still not listed on their search partners.
If I were I would rather let it stay that way. Better ROI. At the very least you only have to deal with competitors clicking on your ads.
Getting tonnes of clicks but no sales is useless.
Your max cpc is way too high in comparison with your daily budget. Good luck with the optimizer!
please take my advice and turn your avg bid price down, a lot, like a fifth, and turn your daily limit up, like 5 times,
try it for one day, im pretty sure youll have much better results.
An example would be I sell a $1000 item, and I make $500 each time I sell one.
Lets say my conversion rate for the term "product name" is 1%. That means that 1 of every 100 people that visit on that term will purchase this $1000 item.
At $5 a click I break even, which is okay if there is value in having a client for life...but pointless if it is a one off sale.
$4 per click = $100 profit
$3 per click = $200 profit
$2 per click = $300 profit
$1 per click = $400 profit
PPC is a numbers game, and you need to know what each click is worth to you. Sometimes you lose money when you start, but sometimes you get lucky and things work perfectly. I suggest you learn exactly what each sale is worth to you and use all of the tools (overture/google keyword estimation tools, keyword suggestion tools) available and plan the campaign on paper.
As for those expensive clicks, maybe lower them for the time being and collect search volume data (impressions).
Also with a campaign of 15 keywords it seems like you are probably missing out on some terrific low cost, low volume, high converting keywords.
I don't think it's uncommon for people to click thru several ads on a page to compare and then go back to ones that interested them for more info... incurring two or more clicks - certainly considered legitimate clicking behaviour by G... another cost of doing business in a world cluttered by competition.
I second the suggestion of trying as many keywords as possible - especially "phrase" variations - use Google's related keywords tool as well as other keyword tools to be found on the net... let them run for a while, and gradually prune off keywords that aren't getting clicks - but you also have to consider your ad creatives - try several different ad wordings - there are lots of valuable tips in these and other forums - sorry if I'm presuming your a newbie on this - I don't mean to imply that. Anyways, I also suggest that you don't count out the content network until you've tried it - it may not convert as well, but it has been very profitable for some adgroups of mine... break up your keywords into related clusters in different adgroups, with targetted ads, and for those that don't perform well with content (I'm referring to conversion, not CTR), put them into a separate campaign with content turned off.
Good Luck.
Be careful where you place that decimal point! Thank goodness I caught it early!
Kay
The first thing you need to do is research more keywords.
When you start a "serious" Google campaign you should be bidding on anywhere from 100-200 different keywords.
The object is to get dozens of keyword terms that aren't searched as often,but you make up your impressions by the shear volume.This also enables you to get many of your clicks for as little as five cents each.
Example: You may be bidding on "widget stores" which has a lot of competition and a first page ranking would cost you $1.00 per click.
You want to search for different variations of the term "widget",such as "red widget","widget adapters","widget cases",ect.You'll find that you can pick up many of these terms for cheap.
So if the original term "widget stores" gets 1000 searches a month (example) you can find 100 of these less searched terms that get maybe 50 searches each.So 100x50=5000 searches and you're paying a heck of a lot less for those clicks.
Another thing,when entering your keywords,use plural and singular in Google.That won't make a difference in Overture,but in Google both singular and plural terms are searched.
Also,use broad matching,phrase matching,exact matching and negative keywords.Example: widget stores is broad matched as it can come up in any order in a search."widget stores" is phrase matched so it will come up when that phrase or any variation of it is searched.[widget stores] seen here in brackets is an exact match.It will only come up when that phrase is matched exactly.
You may think that broad matching or phrase matching would be better because they would get more impressions?
That's not necessarily a good thing.
Exact matching is best overall because the traffic received from an exact match is more targeted.
So if someone types in widget stores and you have that phrase exact matched [widget stores] you've got a very targeted visitor.
Always try to put whatever keyword or phrase you're bidding on in your headline and as many times as you can in your ad body.Make certain that the ad makes sense when doing this.
The reason is that your keywords will be in bold when that person does their search.If you have "Ken's Widget Store" in your headline,then "widget store" will be in bold and will be more likely to get the persons attention.
There's more.but I can't write a book right now.
Just make sure to take your time to research keywords BEFORE you set up your campaign.You'll be saving yourself time and money in the long run.
By the way,I'm new to the site so HELLO EVERYONE!
I hope that this was helpful.
Guitarjoe
P.S.There are many good ebooks on this subject.If you look around you'll find some that are very helpful.
Excellent, helpful advice and "on the money". When you get time, do write that book :)
patient2all
Thank you for your kind words.
The book idea has crossed my mind a couple times lately,but I'm in the process of starting a newsletter,so I'm taking things one step at a time.
The newsletter is going to be content based with recommendations on different products that I've found to be helpful.Lots of freebies.
What are your thoughts on the recent changes at Google?
I've read some of your other posts and would be interested in your input.
Regards,
Guitarjoe
All this latest jazz about banner ads and animated gifs doesn't do much for me. They may be new for Google, but users have seen enough of these already for 10 lifetimes. Hope they don't become so prevalent that they detract from the text ads!
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The changes that bug me the most of late are the blurring of the three match types. Now this is mostly based on opinions here but it appears that broad and phrase match start out as purely exact until they've proven they can hold their own as an exact match. This despite the fact that many, many people won't simply enter "green widget" but add an uncountable variety of words to the beginning or the end.
The biggest question that I have on all this is must a broad keyword phrase prove itself worthy of "broader" matching based on its performance in your campaigns or system-wide?
I've tried to find a rhyme or reason to it but failed to. Keywords that I've entered fresh sometimes appear on all sorts of matches and others with proven 5% CTRs over 1000 impressions won't match if someones adds an article or preposition.
It would be rewarding for all, Google, Advertisers and searchers if phrase matches acted the way they did a year ago. One could use the phrase "green widgets" and be satisfied that they would pick up searches for "buy green widgets", "want green widgets", etc. Now I see that happening only sporadically.
Even worse is how some of the largest advertisers can afford to accumulate the history and CTR to match on every search for "widget" even if "widget" is so general that no one would simply search for a widget. I've noticed situations where maybe 1/5 of advertisers in the consumer retail ads can actually produce a "green widget" if that is what the searcher wanted.
I've said some of this before I know, what happened to the site search feature? Is it gone for everyone?---
Now here is a question I really wish we could get an answer for:
If all broad matches potentially start out as exact, does it still make any sense to also include the same keyword phrase as an [exact] or "phrase" match too? I may be mistaken, but if all three are in use in an AdGroup, if the searcher uses the exact search phrase, the [exact match] will grab the click.
If that is so, how can the broad version of the same phrase ever accumulate enough impressions/clicks as an exact match to warrant "broadening" the searches it will appear for? (Let's leave "expanded" broad matching out of the equation for now)
Given the nature of much of what I promote, I need to use very targeted phrases that will be unique for each AdGroup. Thought that was being relevant. However, being so targeted tends to result in those keyword phrases never getting enough exposure to warrant broader matching. This is despite the fact that they satisfy precisely the needs of the searcher for that particular "red widget with green stripes"
However, unless I load up on keywords beyond what AdWords considers practical, I lose out on many, many variants that a searcher may choose to type.
I'm pretty successful at what I set out to do, but I feel I could be more successful if I didn't lose out on a search for " a red widget with green stripes" by failing to include that article. That leaves the searcher with ads showing only for giant "widget" companies who appear simply because "widget" was included in the searcher's phrase. The large companies simply show their home page and they may or may not offer the red one with green stripes. Even if they do, locating it will require a secondary search inside the merchant's site. Again, that's not what I thought AdWords was about.
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Hopefully, for everyone's benefit, I'll mention that I've noticed over time that search queries tend to break out into roughly 3 types.
1) People who think since they are searching on a computer, they should talk like one:
red widget green stripe
2) Those who like to ask a question (The Ask Jeeves types):
where can i buy a red widget with a green stripe?
3) Finally, those who blend the two methods for a natural, but concise search:
red widgets with green stripes
Now I find it hard to grab all those searchers within small niche areas of widget sales. Anyone else or is there an easy answer? I'd be genuinely gratified to be proven wrong.
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Finally, there is the 'On Hold/Trial/Disabled" problem that so many experience. I've rarely got more than a handful of words on "Hold" since most of my keywords are being used for the first time. However, I can more than sympathize with those who try to enter an arena only to find out that all the best keywords are forever banned from use because of other advertisers past mistakes.
Inevitably this is going to lead to entire markets being "AdWords Free" for the most likely search terms. A situation that benefits no one, Google, Advertisers or Searchers.
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At some point, hopefully Google will realize that some recent changes have clearly backfired.
a) The broadest matching luxuries being given to entities that can least match the search
b) The slim matching leeway available to niche keywords that will never garner the requisite impressions
c) The multiple markets whose keywords are forever banished to a Hold/Disabled vacuum.
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We always hear about ad relevancy. However, despite the silly auction ads, there was much more of it a year ago.
patient2all
